I got my first demo of the new-ish Korg Wavedrum and it caused me to begin abusing my
credit card once again.

Yes, folks, I’ve fallen again. I had to have this
thing. I’m simultaneously amazed, delighted and inspired by my new friend. I whump her
with a stick and she sings to me in a hundred voices that make me go ‘I could use this
on a new tune’.

I’m amazed at how sensitive the WD is to my
(non-drummist) playing. I’m also amazed at how convincing many of the percussion sounds
are. When I say ‘convincing’ I’m more meaning that it will sound as if I’ve
wheeled a thing of wood and skin into the studio, rather than convincing me that it sounds
exactly like a real arimbao – especially since I haven’t a clue what an arimbao would
look or sound like. I’m a rock’n’roll guy at heart, so anything that sounds like the
end of side one of Ommadawn is good enough for me.

I love the fact that I’m
playing on a real drum skin. As a percussive lightweight I probably won’t be using the
pressure sensitivity much, but that fact that it responds to not only *how* I hit the
skin, but *where* I hit the skin means no two performances need sound the same. When I’m
looking to add some flowing percussion to my tracks this is critically important.

I’ll be buying a decent drum head to replace the rather flimsy-feeling one
supplied by Korg. I don’t see it lasting long, especially during our honeymoon period.
I’m finding it hard to stop hitting this thing and smiling!

Just skimming through the preset patches is enough to make your head swim with the
potential. Predictably there are some typically ‘listen how many swooshy noises we can
fit in’ preset patches in there. I suppose the programmers have to earn their stripes
and every synth needs a few of those patches for the showroom. Personally I’d have liked
a few more kick/snare combos, but I’ll just have to rattle those up myself. I love the
Simmons simulation!

Negatives?

No MIDI. I’ve seen a lot of the
arguments that say that MIDI would not be able to carry the data that the WD can generate.
I accept this explanation, but I would still like to be able to generate a simple
velocity-sensitive trigger from the WD, even if it only had a MIDI output. And if I could
have had a MIDI input I’d settle for it producing a greatly simplified replay than
allowing me to access all of the WD’s self-generated magic.

I hate the
programming system. It seems we’re back to the days of five buttons to run the whole
show and three cryptic LED characters to tell you what you need to know. ‘LEU’ equates
to balance between rim and skin, huh? Yeah, I can see that one coming easily to mind in
three month’s time. But if these compromises bring it home at this sort of price I can
live with it.

An external power supply – ugh! Korg made
me break my ‘no external PSUs in my studio, thanks’ rule! I hate these things as much
as ever, but it’s no bigger than any other I’ve seen and at least it will work both
sides of the pond.

Stared into the shiny light from Korg for too long When I
woke up, the gaffer tape around my wallet was off and the deed was done

Negatives above noted, but having had a go on just about every electronic drum thingy
since electronic drum thingies first started up to the V drum (impressive but mmmm not
quite there) this one produced an instant big grin

That’s great isn’t it? Not content with leaving me to suffer in my abject guilt, I now
have to face the fact that I’ve helped to drag others down with me.

I’d recommend replacing the rather flimsy/lumpy skin that Korg supply. I found that I
could get a more symmetrical response with a new skin. I chose a Remo Fibreskyn, but that
was just to give a similar look, rather than me having any artistically valid reason!

The most important setting for me was to get the pressure sensitivity correct. The
sensor was set way too high on mine when I first took my drum out of the box; it was
actually causing a raised lump in the skin. By dropping it back to something more sensible
I found the drum more playable, more responsive and the stick bounce was much more
natural.

It is a wonderful instrument. I had to buy one this year after having a go of one at a
friend's. My gig partner uses it at our gigs - 90% on the Tabla setting - it's great but
I'm still on the original head which is starting to fray at the edges.

Quote The Elf:That’s great
isn’t it? Not content with leaving me to suffer in my abject guilt, I now have to face
the fact that I’ve helped to drag others down with me.

And so you should feel guilty, the damn
thing is a divorce lawyers dream come true (neglect and annoyance all in one neat package)

Quote The Elf:The most
important setting for me was to get the pressure sensitivity correct. The sensor was set
way too high on mine when I first took my drum out of the box; it was actually causing a
raised lump in the skin. By dropping it back to something more sensible I found the drum
more playable, more responsive and the stick bounce was much more natural.

I have also bought one of these recently and I'm loving it. The acoustic percussion sounds
are for the most part only passable, in my opinion, with a few exceptions like the tabla,
which sounds very good. The sampled sounds sound very static, like if they had little to
no velocity switching.

The really good part of it is in the synthesized
sounds, it just opens a whole new range of possibilities that I didn't even think were
possible before getting this. The way it responds to different strokes, and being hit with
different things is amazing. Try it with brushes and you'll see. I actually also have a
Roland HPD-15, which is fine as a MIDI controller and great for triggering samples, but I
never got as inspired by that as I do with the Korg wavedrum.

One thing that
you must do is follow the calibration procedure in the manual. I didn't straight away as
Thomann once again sent me a German manual, but once I did it the thing completely changed
and became a lot more responsive.

The downsides are that there's no way to get
your patches out of it. If you want to back them up you will have to write down every
single setting, which would one not expect to have to do in this day and age. Also the
volume without the2X procedure detailed in the manual is lowish, which can be a problem
with some headphones.

Other than that, it's by far the most expressive
electronic instrument I ever played and I'm sure it will get a lot of use.

I am well aware I am about to annoy you all, so sorry in advance...but...

Really?

Ok, so it feels like a drum and acts like a drum, even sounds like a drum (dw I won't
suggest getting a drum), but my main gripe is that I would want at least 5 of them! That
would mean five PSUs dangling around and taking up 5 sockets and I'd need a dodgy DIY
mounting rack system and I still wouldn't have cymbals...

I get that it's great for percussion, but I would want to be able to use a KIT that
reacts like this aswell. And I would want some form of midi control so I know I won't get
bored of the sounds!

Quote Freuman:Ok, so it feels
like a drum and acts like a drum, even sounds like a drum (dw I won't suggest getting a
drum), but my main gripe is that I would want at least 5 of them!

I understand what you mean, and I may also have
said the same at one point, but that feeling changes when you begin to play with one of
these things. It isn’t meant to be part of a drum kit. It’s a bit hard to explain
until you’ve played with one, but it isn’t so much a ‘drum’ as an
‘instrument’. You don’t just hit this as one pad in a kit - you play it as you might
a keyboard, or a guitar. You don’t just hit it with a stick. You can hit or scrape the
rim to set off a sitar drone, or use pressure to introduce filter sweeps to a synth note,
or fire off bass notes with velocity…

Quote Freuman:I get that it's great for percussion, but I
would want to be able to use a KIT that reacts like this aswell. And I would want some
form of midi control so I know I won't get bored of the sounds!

…and I’m sure that Korg, and probably other
manufacturers too, are aware that this feeling exists. I’ll happily put money on a bet
that says something along the lines you suggest is being developed right now in a room
away from prying eyes.

But…

…it won’t be a Wavedrum as we have
it now. There would be little point in a device that reacts to pressure, for instance, in
something like a traditional kit.

Think of the Wavedrum more like a Cajon –
fine when you play it as a single instrument, but would you need five of them?

But I agree with you about the MIDI. No, you couldn’t carry all the nuances of the WD
over MIDI, but as a simple controller it would have made my life easier.

They begin earning their keep next week in front of the acoustic guitar of a certain
incredibly talented Mansfield-based singer/songwriter. I'll see if I can't drop you an
audio file...

Excellent!
Hahaha. It's like adoption!..... ''and you promise you'll send me pictures? And when they
reach 16.. If they want to know who they're real father is.. It's their right to know and
I'll be there for them''

Quote The Elf:But I agree with
you about the MIDI. No, you couldn’t carry all the nuances of the WD over MIDI, but as a
simple controller it would have made my life easier.

I'm quite enjoying the enforced freedom from the grid and the
pencil tool, hit record, play, done in minutes.

But considering the huge depth
of editing available I would gladly have paid a wee bit more for a micro USB port and some
patch editing software.In the days when a 3 digit display and endlessly long menu
layers were the norm my brain was a lot sharper.I'm finding that the 'really good
delve into the editing session' keeps moving to tomorrow.

Maybe just canny
product design, such a pain to edit so you spend your time actually playing the thing.